Runaway
by Psychchick
Summary: When Charlie escapes from the vault to find his dad, Officer Annie Christopher is the vault 101 guard sent to bring him back. Contains OC, Lone wanderer and  later  Charon.
1. Chapter 1

"I can show you a real tunnel snake, Amata!" Butch sneered, as him and his gang cornered the girl. She cringed into the wall.

Butch was just leaning in when somebody tapped on his shoulder. He spun around to face none-other than the doctor's kid.

Angry at the disturbance, he snarled at the boy, "Yeah? What do you wan-"

BAM!

Butch's nose snapped with an audible crack, as the boy delivered a swift punch straight into his face, sending him staggering backwards. After regaining his composure Butch swung a fist wildly, throwing him off balance and allowing the boy to smoothly sidestep. Butch missed completely, the force of his punch having sent him straight past the boy… and into the face of fellow tunnel snake, Paul. The boy smirked at them before turning his attention towards the shaking Amata.

"Are you alright?"

Her eyes gleamed with the emotion of it all, and she threw her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. Her voice came out shaky, "Oh, Charlie! Thank you for saving me!"

Just then Wallis, the third gang member lunged for him. Charlie, still embraced with Amata, swung his fist out to the left to collide with Wallis's jaw, instantly knocking him unconscious. The tunnel snakes all lay collapsed on the ground, Butch and Paul glaring in contempt but in no condition to get up.

A small feminine hand landed on Charlie's arm. He looked down to see Christine Kendall gazing up at him, "You're so strong, Charlie. Please will you go with me to the 'Vault Couples Night'?"

"No! I wanted to ask him," Cried Amata.

"I asked first!"

"He's mine!"

"No, bitch! He's mine!" Christine miraculously pulled out a pillow and whacked Amata over the head with it. Amata, mysteriously covered in mud, retaliated with her own miraculous pillow.

Suddenly, and much to Charlie's dismay, Mr Brotch stepped between the two fighting girls.

"Calm down, ladies. You need to get up." He ordered angrily. _Huh?_

Amata stomped her foot in fury, "But the bitch is trying to steal my man!"

He glared down at the two of them, "Make up!"

Charlie would have much preferred to have seen them make _out_, but before he had an opportunity to vocalise this suggestion Mr Brotch stepped forward to shake him.

"Make up!"

Startled, Charlie tried to pull away. "Hey, I'm not arguing!" The shaking was becoming more vigorous. Charlie started to feel a little disorientated.

The teachers voice suddenly turned extremely feminine, "Wake UP!"

Charlie bolted upright to find himself in his bed, Amata leaning over him with her hands on his shoulders.

"Hey," he grinned.

She frowned deeply, apparently not amused. "Snap out of it! You've got to get out of here, you're dad is gone and my father's men are looking for you!"

He yanked the blanket back over, "Big deal. You're dads mad at my dad. What's that got to do with me?"

"Stop being such an idiot, I said you're dad is _gone_. As in left the vault!"

_That_ got his attention. He threw the blankets off again. "What do you mean left the vault?"

She growled, "I mean left the vault- I- we don't have time for this!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet, rushing to the wardrobe to yank out various items of clothing and throw them in a bag. Shoving it into his chest, he noticed the blood drain out of her face. Her voice caught, "They killed Jonas."

"WHAT?"

"I'm sorry…I know he was you're friend." She pulled out a 10mm and her eyes sought his meaningfully, "I stole this from my father's desk. Take it, just in case."

The gun felt alien in his hand. He felt a need to drop it tugging at him- drop it and kick it away. A loud clatter came from outside his room, followed by an angry man's voice shouting obscenities at something.

He gripped the pistol tighter.

Amata whispered quickly, "Listen, there's a secret tunnel that leads directly from my father's office to the exit. You'll have to hack the computer in his office to open it."

_I have to leave the vault? I don't know what the hell is even out there! _Horrified he opened the door, he was going to find the _goddamn_ overseer and sort this all out. No way was he going to be forced into leaving his home.

"There he is! Hold it right there!" Shouted Officer Kendall, aggressively marching over. His baton was raised in the air like he was going to strike. Charlie's eyes widened in panic and he stumbled backwards.

"Whoa, Officer. I- I haven't done anything," He stammered. This seemed to do little to pacify Kendall, who was now only a few feet away with a twisted smirk on his face. Suddenly his attention snapped to a radroach scuttling over his foot. It bit hard into his shin.

"AAH!" He cried, swinging his baton and sending the insect flying against the wall in little pieces. Another four scurried around the corner, and Kendall turned away from Charlie to focus on them.

Charlie took his opportunity, creeping through a side door and down a hallway. _Why are they trying to attack ME? I haven't done anything wrong_! He thought despairingly. He could see another guard to his left walking away from him, and he crept past as stealthily as possible.

Unfortunately, stealth has never been one of Charlie's strong suits. He had made it around the corner when, so busy watching the guard, his nose collided with something very hard. Ah, yes- the _door_. If the guard failed to hear the thud of hitting the door, then he most likely have heard the smacking of Charlie's head against the floor as he fell backwards. He most certainly, however, would have heard the loud, "Oof!" that followed.

Clutching his head with his hands, he groaned quietly in pain. There was the sound of footsteps approaching. His eyes flickered open.

"Man, you got to help me!" Cried the voice of Butch. Charlie quietly stood up, resisting the will to peek around the corner.

There was a grunt, and the sound of a small scuffle. "Get off of me!" Ordered a deep, angry voice- the guard.

"My mum! She-She's stuck in there with the radroaches. Listen, I know I was a brat! B-b but PLEASE!"

"Fuck off, kid!" The guard snarled, oblivious to the creaking open door, and with it, Charlie's departure.

He sprinted down the hallway towards the atrium. Suddenly, a flame shot out in front of his face, the heat burning his eyes momentarily. He stumbled backwards, blinking rapidly, to see Andy float by scorching a swarm of roaches. Charlie stared at the robot incredulously; _bit of a change from Andy's usual protocol_ he thought, remembering the unhelpfully dysfunctional robot attempt to cut his birthday cake. Since Andy didn't appear to be exhibiting any kind of hostility towards him, he quickly walked past it- careful of the flamethrower.

Just as he stepped into the atrium he thought he heard the robotic voice of Andy.

"Sorry, ma'am. I did not see you there."

Charlie spun around immediately to see another officer, a few feet from the robot, staring at it in dismay. She lifted her visor up, face looking annoyed, and rather frazzled. _Officer Christopher_. He considered going to her for help – she was always one of the kinder guards – but when she shifted her glare onto him, eyes widening slightly, he ran.

"Hey, stop right there!" She ordered.

He heard the heavy thumping of her boots behind him, and sped up, darting around a corner and up the stairs. As he reached the top step he felt her hand brush his arm – she was catching up _fast_, and in a few moments would only be a breath away.

All too swiftly… she was. The breath was knocked out of him as a heavy weight hit him from behind, tackling him to the floor.

She pressed her knee into his back whilst he struggled, effectively pinning him.

"Please!" He cried, gasping for air, "I haven't done anything wrong! You've got to let me go!"

He heard her rattle around with something metallic- _handcuffs_. Oh _shit._

Her voice came out sympathetic but firm, "I can't do that, Charlie. Can't just pretend you've done nothing wrong, even if I want too."

Charlie sneered, "Really? Because you seem pretty capable of pretending you don't work for a homicidal maniac."

The metallic rattling stopped.

"What the hell are you talking about, kid?"

"Jonas!" He spat, feeling rage bubbling up inside of him. "How could you, you _bitch!_ He was one of the kindest fucking people in the vault, and my _friend_! And now he's DEAD!"

She leaned back in shock, the pressure of her knee lessening. He took his chance when he felt her hold on him loosen, hurling his arm backwards and his elbow into her face.

She yelped, falling back onto her heels. Before she had a chance to react he pulled out Amata's 10mm.

His voice came out breathless and angry, "I hate you." Charlie slowly staggered to his feet, keeping the gun still trained on Officer Christopher, who froze. "Don't try to follow me, or the next time we meet I won't be so forgiving."

After staring intently at his face for a moment, she did one curt nod, and he walked backwards away until he stepped through the door.

As soon as the door closed he ran. He flinched as he heard a shrill female scream.

"TOM!"

Mary Holden, from his science class. She was standing behind a pillar, shuddering. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and she was gasping and crying.

Charlie ran over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder "Mary, what's happened?"

She spat straight into his face, recoiling from his touch.

"You! This is all your fault! You and you're stupid father! He had to go and leave, didn't he? He had to mess things up for everybody!"

Charlie wiped his face in shock. His gaze moved past her to a body on the floor several metres away. _Tom, Oh my God._

Mary snarled in his face, "They thought he was you. It's you they're after! I'm going to end all of this!"

She turned and ran towards the main entrance, her hands waving. "Guards! I've found him, I've-"

Her body jerked backwards with the sound of a bullet, followed by another, and another. The third penetrated her skull, spraying blood and bone on to Charlie's jacket. All over his jacket. _Oh my God._ On his _face._

A hoarse scream snapped him back to attention, and he realised it was actually himself. He forced himself to go silent before the guards heard him.

"Hey, who's there?"

Too late.

A bullet whizzed past his head as instincts took over and he sprinted across the room, through the door leading to the top floor. His mind was spinning, _oh shit, oh shit, oh shit._ He took the steps three at a time. The sound of gunshots the ever present reminder that one faltered step and he was going to _die._ Like Mary. And Tom. And _Jonas_.

Radroaches tried to bite his feet as he ran, their presence only known by the high pitched rattling noise they made, and the occasional scratch of their claws.

As he rounded the corner a large black object hurtled towards his vision, and white hot pain seared through his skull. Everything went black.

Charlie stared up at the ceiling for a moment, dazed.

A smiling face came into his line of sight. Oh _shit._

"You didn't _really_ think you could get away from us, did you?"

Security Chief Hannon roughly grabbed him by the collar with his hands, angrily hoisting him up to his feet. Charlie swayed, disorientated. He blinked.

Amata sat on a chair. Her father, the overseer, stood several feet away staring disappointedly at her and speaking in a low, threatening voice. Her stare shifted onto Charlie. There was a dark black ring around her left eye.

The overseer followed her gaze, "Ah, I'm glad to see you're awake now. We've been waiting." The words were pleasant but there was an underlying tone that promised…_violence._

Hannon's hand pushed him down roughly into a hard metal chair.

"You see, your father has done some very bad things. Abandoned us, abandoned _you._ By doing so he has inflicted a great deal of danger upon the whole of the vault." The man walked around Charlie as he spoke, until he was directly behind him. He leaned down to the boy's ear, "We need to find him. Where is he?"

"I don't know where the fu-!"

Hannon backhanded him straight across the face, sending Charlie sputtering and coughing.

"Stop it! He doesn't know anything!" Amata screamed. As she spoke, a small trickle of blood trailed out of the side of her mouth and down her chin. Charlie stared at her in shock.

As if knowing his thoughts the overseer responded to Charlie's expression, "I place the good of the vault above everything, even my own paternal feelings." His voice was cold.

He circled back around Charlie to stand in front of him, "We must not allow sentiment to cloud our judgement. Now tell me, where is your father going?"

Charlie's voice was weak, "I told you, I don't _know._ Please! I just- I don't know what's happening!"

Hannon chuckled darkly.

The overseer's eyes narrowed, "Young man, I grow tired of your games. Put an end to this situation! There is no need to join your father as a traitor to the vault."

Charlie shivered uncontrollably. He just wanted all of this to be over. He's not cut out for this – he's going to die. They're going to kill him. He squeezed his eyes shut in terror, tears leaking at the edges. _Please, let this be a dream! Wake up! _

He opened his eyes again, only to be met with the overseer's cold blue ones. His face was stern, his lips twisted downwards into a frown.

Finally, he sighed, disappointed.

"He doesn't know anything. Kill him."

Amata screamed as Hannon stepped towards him menacingly, slowly pulling his truncheon out. Charlie's breath came in short, quick gasps. Adrenaline coursed through him and survival kicked in as he lashed out at the guard with his boot, forcing him back several metres.

Jumping to his feet, he turned to run when hands grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him backwards. Lunging his elbow out, he heard it collide with a sickening _smack_ on Hannon's nose. Hannon lost his footing, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

"Ah, fuck!"

The guard clutched his bleeding nose with his sleeve, blinking rapidly. Charlie swung around with his fist, but Hannon saw it coming and grabbed it, throwing a punch with his other hand back into the boy's own face.

Charlie's eyes blurred. He saw at the corner of his vision the supposed outline of the overseer pointing a black object at him. Another blur was latched onto his arm, throwing it off direction. He thought he heard Amata crying.

The black object skittered across the floor towards him.

He blinked to clear his vision. The gun. Scrambling across the floor, he kicked at Hannon's hands trying to grab his boot, and stretched out his arm to reach it and swing it around.

BANG! Hannon's face exploded with red as the bullet left the chamber. Charlie froze. He hadn't meant to pull the trigger, it just…happened. _Oh my God._ Time seemed to stand still as the faceless guard slowly dropped to his knees, then forward to the ground. Blood and brains seeped out of his skull and pooled across the floor.

Charlie struggled to his feet, in shock, and turned towards the overseer, still struggling with Amata. He levelled the 10mm in his face.

"Give me the keys to your office."

Amata turned to look at him, then shifted her gaze past him to the floor. 'Oh my God' she mouthed in horror, eyes closing in revulsion. They snapped back open again an instant later when she realised where he was aiming the gun now.

"No! Don't Charlie, He's my father!"

Charlie growled, "Give me the fucking keys!" The overseer watched him warily as his finger twitched against the trigger.

Amata immediately stepped between the gun and her father, her hands diving into his pockets to search for the keys.

"Amata, get out of the way." Charlie snapped, his anger wavering. He didn't want her anywhere near the guns line of sight after what had happened to Hannon, but equally he was too terrified to lower it. He didn't want that to happen to _him_ either.

She pulled out a rattling object from her father's vault suit pocket. The _keys._ Charlie caught them as she threw them to him, and their eyes met for one last second.

"Run." She pleaded.

Her brown hair wisped around her face in locks, having come loose during the ordeal. Face pale, the dark bruise on her eye became all the more apparent. This was not how he wanted things to end.

Throat aching, he turned… and he ran.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie blinked rapidly, covering his eyes with his arm against the blinding white light. After a few seconds it became more bearable as his pupils constricted, and he moved his arm away, viewing the outside world for the first time in his life. It was a wasteland. Desert and rubble stretched for miles, ended only by the place of huge, rock-strewn mountains. Dust curled away from the ground up into the sky as the harsh wind caught it and blew it around. In the sky was a bright yellow light. Charlie stared at it in amazement; could this be the_ sun?_ He had only ever read about the sun.

In the midst of the desert was a small group of buildings. He ambled forwards, down a slope, towards them. What looked like a pre-war _trolley_ lay tipped over, and he nudged it out of the way with his foot. Mr Brotch would have had a fit. As he got closer to the buildings, he could see that they were no longer inhabitable and hadn't been for a very long time. The houses were falling apart; the wood, burnt to black, looked loose enough to collapse the whole structure from just a small amount of pressure. This must have been a settlement from before the war, a town maybe, vaporised by the shock wave of the nuclear bombs.

Armed with only a gun, Charlie decided that the best course of action would be to scavenge. He cautiously stepped through a gap in the panes of wood to enter the middle of the structure. Nothing but pieces of brick and wood could be seen, strewn about the floor or sticking out of the walls; the sharp ends precariously facing inwards. He eyed them warily.

He sighed. There appeared to be nothing here, and he doubted he would find anything even remotely salvageable in any of the other houses either._ Damn it. _He had no caps, no clothes and no fucking idea where he was. Hell, there probably wasn't anything _at all_ outside of that vault. He just left the one place he could call home, for what? For this barren piece of shi-

A large black box lay in amongst the rubble, several feet away. Curious, he walked over to it, crouching down to inspect it. It appeared to be a safe. He smirked. _Well hallelujah. _It was locked- but this didn't faze him. It appeared to be a very simple locking mechanism, which required only a small amount of tension to open. He yanked off his boot and tipped it upside down, praying they were still in there. A tension wrench and a hook pick fell out. _Excellent._ These had come in handy a lot over the past several years or so from retrieving missing items from Butch's own personal bedside safe – more specifically his 'Grognak the barbarian' magazine from last week. Butch wasn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer. Charlie squinted in concentration, carefully applying the tension wrench and 'tweaking' it with the pick. The lock opened with an audible click.

He pulled it open to reveal a small stock of items. Another 10mm, with seven rounds to accompany it. Charlie pocketed the extra gun and refilled his current gun's chamber. He frowned, there weren't nearly enough bullets for him; with only his basic skill of shooting a _BB gun_ there were going to be plenty wasted. He looked around warily; maybe he wouldn't need it, there didn't seem to be anything alive out here. His eyes widened as he peeked back into the safe; syringes and containers of what looked like pills were scattered about. Great, he's just raided a junkie's safe. Making friends everywhere he goes. He shook his head, _no, this is from years ago. No ones been here lately._ He nervously pocketed the drugs – hey, could cheer him up a little- and an… _inhaler_… and quickly squeezed back through the wooden panes.

He sighed and looked around. Where should he even _start_ looking for his father? Squinting, he noticed a board twenty feet or so away with writing on it – _Megaton_, and there was an arrow under the word pointing to the right. Hiking in that general direction he wondered if this was going to simply lead him to more ruins.

Climbing up the slope, he slipped on the rocks, falling down onto one knee. He hissed in a breath of pain, angrily gritting his teeth together. _Stupid rocks. Stupid slope. _His body wasn't cut out for this. Charlie never considered himself overweight, but lets just say that athletics class wasn't his strong point… when he even bothered to show up to it. Personally he didn't see the point of participating in unnecessary physical activity, running aimlessly in big circles without actually _going_ anywhere. Nah, that was Butch's thing. He supposed Butch was brainless enough to have nothing better to do… although, he couldn't help but feel perhaps Butch would be fairing better out here than himself. Well, ok he couldn't help but _know_ that Butch would definitely be fairing much better out here. Butch would certainly have lasted more than twenty minutes outside the vault – which is about the same amount of time Charlie has been out here.

He slipped on another rock and fell down again.

"Oh God, I'm going to _die_ out here," Charlie groaned.

/\\\\\\

/\\\\\\

"He's going to _die_ out there!"

The statement was made by Officer Gomez, a well respected man, but it was met with thick silence. Nobody really wanted to say what was on their mind. In the meeting hall were all the members of security, with the overseer situated at the end of the table. There were mixed emotions in the room; some of them very strong, others particularly confused. Only a handful of people knew the whole story.

Annie was most certainly _not _one of them.

She eyed the overseer warily._ Jonas is dead._ Did she believe the kid? He'd certainly lied his ass off in the past, the amount of trouble he got into with Butch... but he's not capable of murder… is he? Truthfully, she had no idea. Annie had been a security guard for the past nine years, soon as her G.O.A.T had told her to, but she had never seen a murderer before in her life. The vault was a pretty heavily controlled area; the worst crime they really ever got was the friggin' tunnel snake's fisty-cuffs with the other kids.

She watched the overseer as he glared at Gomez across the table. Was _he_ capable of murder?

Officer Gomez responded furiously to the overseer, "We need to send a rescue team to bring him back. Listen, I don't know exactly what went down, but Charlie's just a kid. A _good_ kid at tha-"

Wolfe slammed his fist down on the metal surface of the table, and he levelled his glare with the shocked officer. "That _brat_ is responsible for the murder of three people. One of those our own man: chief security Hannon! The murderous little fiend but a bullet straight into his skull in cold blood!"

Gomez's jaw dropped. He didn't know _what_ to say to that, and Annie couldn't blame him. Hannon's _dead?_ By _Charlie?_ Hannon was certainly not the most passive of individuals, but he couldn't have done anything so bad as to provoke his own murder. No- the chief was a _good _cop, her _mentor. _He would've wanted to help Charlie had the boy let him. She gritted her teeth angrily; there was no excuse for this.

'_The next time we meet I won't be so forgiving.' _

He had threatened her, shoved a gun into her face, and from the look of hate in his eyes he was very much prepared to pull that trigger. _Yes_, she decided; he was _very_ capable of murder. She felt anger and sorrow swelling up inside of her, and she felt her heart go out to Hannon's family. _Oh, my God; _his _son._ Suddenly she felt very angry at Gomez; a _rescue_ mission?

The overseer obviously sensed the rising tension in the room and clasped his hands together in exasperation. Annie knew from the look on his face that something big was coming.

"I want him back."

Gomez smiled in relief, and despite the contempt she had felt earlier even Annie felt a little bit of weight lift from her chest. She tried to justify her feelings; _so he can go to jail… take the lawful punishment he deserves._ Besides, Hannon's family would need some closure.

Wolfe smiled too, but in a different way.

The overseer continued, "Charlie Broughton is a danger to the whole of the vault. The knowledge he carries could lead _outsiders_…_sadists…_ to our location. We _must_ bring him back."

There was a stunned moment of silence, and then everyone started to talk at once.

"You really think there could be _any_one alive out there?"

"That level of radiation – All life should be dead."

"_I'm_ certainly not going to go out ther-"

"Who else died?"

All eyes shifted to her and it took Annie a moment to register that she had said that out loud. What Wolfe had said earlier, _the murder of three people_, had been nagging at the back of her head like there was something important in those words. Something she had missed. _Jonas, Hannon… but who was the third?_

Officer Kendall cleared his throat uncomfortably, "If you're referring to Mary and Tom Holden… well, there was an unfortunate radroach incident. I-ugh, almost got swarmed myself. Vicious things."

"Actually I was talking about what Wolfe said, about Charlie's…ughm… murders." For some reason it was particularly difficult to acknowledge his actions out loud.

Curious eyes looked to Wolfe. Obviously there were others wondering about the same thing. Wolfe opened his mouth but the overseer cut in.

"Amata."


End file.
